Report Card: Grading 49ers through first quarter of 2017

School has been in session for Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers for four weeks. And while the team is doing its homework and studying hard, it’s done poorly on its tests over its first quarter of the school year.

San Francisco (0-4) enters Week 5 against the Colts looking for its first win despite showing signs of progress. Its lost games to NFC West foes by eight points combined over the last three weeks.

The 49ers have two more road games before finishing the schedule with six of its last 10 at Levi’s Stadium, leaving opportunity for the GPA to improve.

Let’s grade offense, defense, special teams and Shanahan’s coaching over the first quarter of the season.

Brian Hoyer looked comfortable running Shanahan’s offense throughout the offseason, training camp and the third preseason game. But he’s struggled while San Francisco has taken on some of the league’s most talented defenses in three of the first four weeks.

The 49ers failed to score touchdowns in Weeks 1, 2, and 4, making the Thursday night, 39-point performance against the Rams a clear outlier. Additionally, the offense has compounded its inability to score by turning the ball over putting the defense in bad spots. It’s given the ball away at least once each week.

Shanahan’s offense doesn’t have much to hang its hat on aside from the running game, which is averaging 4.4 yards per carry, good for 10th best in the NFL. It’s clear opponents work to make the offense play left handed by taking away openings for running back Carlos Hyde by stacking the box and forcing Hoyer to win with his arm.

The latest example came Sunday when the Cardinals forced 49 pass attempts from Hoyer, who completed fewer than half while his receivers struggled to get open and catch his throws. Hoyer through four games has the NFL’s third-lowest quarterback rating among starters (67.9) and has to improve if he wants to remain the starter for the entire season.

Like this article?

Sign up for the Niners Wire email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning

Success

Thanks for signing up.
You'll be waking up a little more awesome tomorrow.